Recently after Kamui delivered his first ever podium result in his F1 carreer,there have emerged speculations about his future. There is no doubt that he is a fast and talanted driver,as well as he has bringed much of action for the sport with his overtakes in past years,but now is the question,will he be given a new contrat from Sauber or any other team? As F1 arrived in Korea ,there are new talks about a need for sponsorship for him to stay at now Monisha Kaltenborn led team.
In Toyota days the team had been sponsored by Panasonic ,and when the team pulled out of the sport,Kamui was left without an almoast secured full-time drive for the 2010 season. Further on,when he signed for Sauber,the former Team boss Peter Sauber stated that it had taken Kobayashi without the possible backing of Panasonic and other Japanese investors.
So,given these facts,what is your prediction and oppinion about his Future in F1? Will he stay at Sauber or perhaps will consider other options if there are such?

On pure results Perez has outshined KK this season but if you scratch beneath the surface then on quali performance KK has atleast matched Perez. I think he’s going to be strong the rest of the season and if he doesn’t get the Sauber drive then maybe Lotus or Williams should sign him up.

It’s all down to strategy between the Sauber pair.
If you think about it, Sergio’s podiums have all been down to a different strategy, starting outside of the top 10 and using spare tyres or in the case of Malaysia, being incredibly lucky.
Now don’t get me wrong, i think he’s had fantastic results and i’m a big fan of Perez, but Kobayashi got his podium in Japan on merit, through no aggressive strategies and all through pace, thats the difference between the two.

I think he deserves another year, especially after that performance. hopefully he’ll get a sponsor because he deserves the drive.

@Bosley I think it’s rather easy for Koba now te get some healthy money behind him form his country. He had this long needed result,he is more or less consistent ,and he is popular in Japan. I even could see Sauber lure a Japanese car manufacturer on the board.

Monisha Kaltenborn said something back in Suzuka which I found very interesting. I don’t remember the exact words, but she said something like:

“If you look at most of the podiums we had, he had the better qualifying. Through that, he has certain restraints on the tyres, on the strategy, and with the other car you can simply take a risk: and the risk worked out and paid off. So you have to be careful when you start comparing our drivers. I think he has been unlucky this year and it was about time he started being lucky.”

“He” in this context is Kamui Kobayashi.

It’s certainly got a great deal of truth in it when you look at it. They’re more likely to play it safe from a Q3 start, than if your’e doing a Q2 start. Interestingly, Sergio’s points (and podiums) have all come from outside the top 10. He has never once scored when he has made Q3.

What are you talking about? Perez’s podium in Malaysia was when he clearly did make it into Q3 and started 9th. Also, because the race was wet-weather, he didn’t have the benefit of starting on and having more fresh tyres either. Sergio simply outclassed Kamui that weekend.

Regardless of that, I do agree Kobayashi deserves a driver for next season because well, simply, he’s one of the top 24 drivers in the world. He will be in Formula 1 next year, but I personally believe that it won’t be with Sauber.

Fortunately for him, because of his podium last week in Japan may have saved his career in F1. Nonetheless, I’ll be disappointing if he isn’t a part of the elite 24 next season, he’s too good and exciting or a driver for that.

I’m a big Kobayashi fan, but I’m not going to claim he’s going to become a world champion one day, because I don’t see it happening right now.

However, I think he is fully, FULLY deserving of a race seat in F1 and I believe Sauber should and more than likely want to retain him for next year.

I find it rather depressing that Kobayashi’s future seems to be in doubt, when I can think of a few drivers who have been much less impressive this season whose futures don’t seem to be in question at all.

To be honest, I don’t think Kobayashi’s future depends only on sponsorhip now. Alguersuari really looks Sauber bound now. If Massa stays with Ferrari and the Force India drivers stay in place, it’s the only destination for the spaniard. That means Kobayashi will fight the seat out with either Kovalainen or Gutierrez, with the latter being the most plausible option. Carlos Slim has announced Telmex and Claro will stay with Sauber in terms of sponsorship next season. Wheter that comes with a racing seat for Gutierrez or not, remains to be seen.

But I think it’s gonna be a hard to make decision to dump Kobayashi with his experience within the team, good quali performance and a podium in his name in sight. If Slim doesn’t force Gutierrez’s F1 entry, I think Koba will stay at Sauber for another year at least. However, if that does happen, then Koba is at the end of the line. I don’t see any seat for him at any team other than Caterham maybe, who can accept less money from Koba instead of no money at all from Petrov. Williams looks set with Maldonado keeping Chavez’s money flowing and Bottas, while Grosjean will most certainly stay with Lotus.

Peter Sauber has confirmed Blick’s rumours regarding Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez as contenders for the Sauber seat. I’m a NH fan but I’ve always supported KK, so I have mixed feelings over the proposed line-up of Hulk-Gutierrez. If Kobayashi loses his seat, he could return to Toyota for the WEC or even IndyCar; surely all the Indycar teams know of his reputation?

That wouldn’t be far off. This means Alguersuari could get the call from Force India, which seems a little more plausible than coming from Sauber. That if Force India manages to overcome its financial difficulties. At the moment it doesn’t look good for them, at all.

or even IndyCar; surely all the Indycar teams know of his reputation?

I respect both of them but, an IndyCar line-up with both Sato AND Kobayashi on the grid? Oh my…

I think it’s next to impossible for Kamui to land that Ferrari seat. One thing is certain though: everyone is waiting for Ferrari to decide on their second driver now. If Massa stays, then Hulkenberg goes to Sauber alongside Gutierrez while Alguersuari fills the empty seat at Force India and Kamui is out. If Massa goes, Hulkenberg goes to Ferrari which means Kamui has a bigger chance of keeping his seat. However, Alguersuari has already announced that he WILL be on the grid in 2013 so if it doesn’t happen with Force India I reckon it will with Sauber.

So the most likely scenarios are either: Massa at Ferrari, Hulkenberg / Gutierrez at Sauber and Alguersuari / Di Resta at Force India OR Hulkenberg at Ferrari, Alguersuari / Gutierrez at Sauber and Di Resta / Bianchi at Force India

It might be just me but it looks more and more like Koba’s best option for 2013 is with Caterham, but since Kovalainen is most probably staying and Van Der Garde is in the cards for the second seat, Kamui will probably need a serious financial boost to land it.